Garden tractor trouble...
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From: West Chester PA
Garden tractor trouble...
I have a craftsman 14.5 hp garden tractor with a Briggs and Stratton engine. The battery is brand new, bought a week ago. I cut the grass last week after putting in the new battery. I went to mow today, and the battery was dead. It only showed 4.5 volts across the terminals. I need to get the grass cut, so I jumped it from my Explorer. When I finished mowing and turned the mower off, there were 11.7 volts across the battery. Anyone ever have this problem? I'm a little confused. If the alternator was bad, would the battery have taken ANY charge while I was mowing? I'm thinking that there must be a short somewhere that is drawing current from the battery when the motor isn't running and the key is off. Does it sound like I'm on the right road or am I completely off track?
Thanks in advance.
Matt
Thanks in advance.
Matt
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From: clementsport canada
sounds like your on the right track to me. the alt may have a leak in it, which causes the drain. but also alows it to charge. remove the - batt cable, and see if you get a spark when your reattach it, if so, there's something drawing current, unhook onething at a time till you find it
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Joined: Aug 2004
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Make you a light & unhook your negative battery cable. Hook the light up between the neg cable & the neg post on the battery. If it lights you have a short somewhere. As last post said unhook things until light goes out . Same as checking for a spark when you hook the cable up , this is just easier.
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Posting Guru
Joined: Apr 2003
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From: West Chester PA
The problem appears to be the connection on the solenoid. With a wire brush, I cleaned those connections and every other electrical connection that I could find. I charged the battery and it appears to be holding it's charge. Thanks for the help guys!
Matt
Matt
